Page 23 - 1918 November - To Dragma

46 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI
also president of Panhellenic, as the presidency faces in turn of rota-
tion to Kappa this year.
The chapter has just purchased a Liberty Bond of the Fourth Issue
and subscribed heavily to the College Friendship Fund (a War and
missionary Fund). Also Kappa has paid her part of the Liberty
Bond purchased by the local Panhellenic.
This year's activities are manifold. The Red Cross sewing room
demands much of our time; and the girls are all trying out for the
basketball squads. Next time, we will tell you who were successful.
There is a labor shortage here at college; and the Kappa girls are
helping in many ways, waiting on tables in the dormitory dining-
rooms, raking up leaves on campus, and serving at the tea rooms
and in the office.
Our Lynchburg alumna; surprised us after our first chapter meeting
of the year with a lovely informal tea. Genevieve Glasgow, ex-'19,
surprised us with a check for ten dollars at the same time. That was
a gala day, as was also pledge day. The following girls are now
pledged: Frances McFaden, Richmond, Va.; Jean Stribling, Peters-
burg, V a . ; Mary B. Reed, Yazoo City, Miss.; Rose Smith, Lynch-
burg, Va.
Kappa welcomes gladly and with pride three little sisters: Clara
Atkinson, Harriet Mann, and Louise Butterfield. We will tell you
more of them next time.
E L E A N O R M A N N I N G , Chapter Editor.
ZETA—UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
Dear Alpha 0 Sisters:
I t hardly seems possible that we have been in school for three
weeks: it has been so broken into on account of the Spanish influ-
enza. A number of the girls at the house have had i t ; but at this time,
they are all well and back in school again.
Our rush week was an unusually successful one this year. We
had three days of rushing, four parties in all. They were very pretty
parties, two cotillions, a Japanese breakfast, and an Oriental dinner.
We pledged sixteen new members, who are all very promising.
The Zeta Chapter sends love to all the other chapters of Alpha O.
Sincerely,
M A R Y W A T E R S , '20.
SIGMA—UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Dear Sisters:
I t seems there is so much to tell, I hardly know where to begin.
The war has indeed wrought manv changes in the university itself,
as well as having vitally touched the various fraternities. Then you
TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 47
have all felt the impetus of change too; and, as we are interested in
knowing how other universities and chapters have been affected, you
may be interested to know the changes that have occurred in the
University of California, and to what extent Sigma of Alpha Omicron
Pi has been affected.
First of all our usual college opening (which by the way was not
the usual opening at all) was approximately a month and a half
later than heretofore. The extra length of vacation was given that
university students might engage in useful war work throughout the
summer months. Also, as later developments have shown, that the
regents and faculty of the university might have time to adjust the
curriculum to changing war conditions. As a result of this adjust-
ment, we now have a quarter system instead of our former semester.
This new system means harder, more concentrated work. Already
by actual experience we are beginning to learn this fact.
To return to ourselves, we began our rushing season under very
serious handicaps as we thought. Our number of active girls had
been seriously depleted. You know how most every girl is going to
business college, accepting business positions, or else engaging i n
some war work. Likewise, there was a corresponding lessening of
the number of incoming freshmen. And of course rushing was very
simple. According to rules of Panhellenic, we served no refreshments
at tea (a paradox indeed), nor did we give any rushing dinners. I n
addition every girl's heart was with our army fighting gloriously in
France. I t seemed hard to concentrate our minds on the details of
rushing. Yet despite all these apparent handicaps ( I am not so sure
they really were handicaps, you know, because the war had already
eliminated all but worthwhile girls) we have added eleven wonder-
ful freshmen to our number. They are Marguerite Howard, Verda
Bowman, Myrtle Glen, Dorothy Pomeroy, Mabel DePrene, Loie
Frances, Rachael Ward, Jeanette Fisburn, and Elsie Bishop. You are
sure to be hearing more of these girls during their college careers.
Also we are very pleased to have with us Eleanor Payton, who has
transferred from Washington.
As to the university, we are a military camp. Twelve hundred
flying cadets take their ground work here. We have five hundred men
in a naval unit, and three thousand men form our Student Army
Training Corps. You all know how the government has com-
mandeered the universities and colleges for its uses. Still it is indeed
a novelty to have our boys under military discipline, living in barracks,
going to classes in squadron formation, in fact, being real soldiers.
The girls have a well-defined place in this changed university.
Credit is given for Red Cross work in surgical dressing, sewing, and